Lynching of Joseph H. McCoy

Joseph H. McCoy (1878/1879 – April 23, 1897) was a Black teenager who was lynched in Alexandria, Virginia, beginning the night of April 22, 1897, by a mob who fought their way through police officers to break him out of jail. The mob then beat McCoy severely before he was hanged to death. McCoy was born and raised in Alexandria, living with extended family. He had been arrested, without a warrant, for sexually assaulting three daughters of his white employer, Richard Lacy, for whom he had worked for 16 years. McCoy denied the charges. McCoy was one of two lynching victims in Alexandria, Virginia; the second, Benjamin Thomas, was lynched two years later, in 1899.